Stroudsburg fire damages Main St. building

Linda Gates looked up from the sidewalk to the broken windows of her Main Street apartment, where firefighters inside were finishing putting out the fire that destroyed everything she owned.

JENNA EBERSOLE

Linda Gates looked up from the sidewalk to the broken windows of her Main Street apartment, where firefighters inside were finishing putting out the fire that destroyed everything she owned.

Gates, 65, has lived in the apartment above the Pocono Sew & Vac store for six years and is now down to just the clothes on her back, she explained, tears in her eyes.

The fire Saturday morning started while she was away and destroyed two or three apartments out of eight in the building and caused water damage to the Sew & Vac, Stroudsburg Fire Chief John E. Stevens said.

Earlier in the day, witnesses reported seeing flames shooting out of an upper-floor window. Stevens said the call came in at about 9:30 a.m., and the fire's origin remains under investigation.

The response closed a section of Main Street, which reopened at about 2 p.m.

No one was hurt in the fire, Stevens said, and responders brought it under control within about an hour.

The fire blew out some of the glass in the windows, and firefighters smashed others as part of the response, he said.

Among the fire companies on the scene were Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Stroud and Pocono Township.

Stevens said Main Street fires are all significant given the potential of them spreading between buildings.

"We were able to contain it to the building," he said.

Gates said she was distraught to get the call from a friend that her apartment was on fire. She caught a bus and raced back.

Her roommate and fiance, who is 72, was out of the apartment doing laundry, she said.

Fortunately, he has more clothing left because he was washing it, and an urn holding the ashes of his late wife was saved. But he also had open-heart surgery several months ago, and the medication is now gone, Gates said.

Gates said a photograph of her late parents was in the apartment as well.

"I lost everything," she said.

Gates also lost a former home in Tobyhanna to a fire 14 years ago. Now it has happened again.

One of Gates' friends, Dorothy Clark, stood alongside her on the sidewalk.

She said she is homeless, and Gates has helped her many times, so she plans to do the same now, outlining ideas of where they would go to get clothes.

"She's been there for us," she said.

The Red Cross of the Poconos reported helping 13 adults from six families with food, clothing and lodging. The agency will also follow-up with the families in coming days.

At First Presbyterian Church next to the site of the fire, Henry Schneider said he helps oversee the building and grounds and came to check the building when he heard about the fire. He came out of the church, saying he did not find any damage.

"It's just a bad feeling that people are going to be out of a home," he said, adding that he knows a man who helps care for the apartment building and is relieved no one was injured.

Nearby, Pam Ambrosio of Milford, New Jersey, stood with her husband behind yellow caution tape watching the scene. She said they drove an hour to pick up a sewing machine she just bought at Sew & Vac and saw the firetrucks.

"We're like, this is kind of the block. Maybe it'll be after it," she said, laughing as she explained they realized the truth quickly.

Ambrosio said she didn't want to be selfish and hoped the store would recover.